I Wish
by MarrowInTheBone
Summary: "I would say that I hope the time never comes when that is needed, but the nature of the universe is that it will eventually happen." / As Galeem falls, that very time has come.


**A/N: I watched the Dharkon Wins ending once and I'm still not okay. Also, while this is a Super Smash Bros. fic, it focuses on two Super Mario characters and an integral plot point is based off of Super Mario canon. I explain the piece of canon (and headcanons) used so the fic makes sense if you don't know about it, but if you ain't a fan of the Super Mario characters, this fic ain't for you.**

* * *

"Peach," Rosalina says, her hand resting lightly on her shoulder. "Are you aware that you are made of stars?"

Peach cants her head down from where she was gazing at the night sky, sending Rosalina an amused smile. "I have been told that before, yes. It's a popular compliment."

"I did not mean it solely as a compliment."

A gentle breeze blows over the two, a slight tinge of saltiness in it from the sea below. The two are seated next to a cliff that Rosalina recommended for star-gazing. She suggested that they go there earlier today for no apparent reason.

She leans forward slightly, her stare very earnest. "I can feel a celestial energy from you that most others do not have. A star resides in your heart."

Peach's expression becomes serious as she turns her body to Rosalina. Her dress rustles against the grass. "I'm not the only one, right?"

Rosalina lays her hand back into her own lap. "No. Many of our close friends do as well. You were the first I noticed, however."

Peach stares down. "I don't entirely understand it. I've tried learning about it, but there's so little information." She raises her hands and places them atop her brooch. "All I know is that it means I'm a star child, and a star child is supposed to be very powerful. It sounds like part of a mostly forgotten prophecy." She looks up, the moon shining in her pupils. "Are you a star child, too?"

Rosalina shakes her head. "No."

"Do you know what it means?"

She looks back out to the sky. "There is this great star that resides in the cosmos––not in Star Haven, but somewhere even farther away. It travels across all the galaxies and, every few centuries, separates into seven parts and falls down to a planet below. As you know, these seven stars then enter the hearts of seven children."

"Are they chosen?" Peach asks. "Or is it random?"

Rosalina is silent for a long while. "I am not sure," she finally admits. "The stars elude even me, sometimes."

Peach's eyes widen, but she says nothing more.

"What I do know is that these star children are innately drawn to each other," Rosalina continues, twirling a finger around a blade of grass. "Their lives inevitably entangle until it is impossible for them to separate––but rarely do they ever entirely agree. But if they were ever to combine their powers..."

"The stars would be the limit," Peach finishes.

"Exactly." Rosalina glances at Peach. "I would say that I hope the time never comes when that is needed, but the nature of the universe is that it will eventually happen."

Peach purses her lips. "I... suppose so."

* * *

_I suppose so_, she said so long ago, long before she ever recommended Rosalina as a new fighter to Master Hand. Now, she feels guilt push through and weave around her throat like thorny vines as she sees fear, true _fear_, flood Rosalina's eyes.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," she says as Galeem falls down from the sky and dark tendrils like cracks in a mirror shoot through the sky.

Peach's heart squeezes painfully. Even without the ancient wisdom Rosalina has, Peach can feel an instinctual dread within her that _this is very bad_. It doesn't help that she has always been an emotional sponge, so receptive to the feelings of those around her––too receptive, perhaps, as everyone begins to react.

"Wh-What's happening?" Isabelle squeaks out, her tiny form trembling terribly alongside Villager, who is in a similar state of distraught; their eyes are wide as they cower into her side.

"We... lost," Samus says rather blankly, taking her helmet off. Her face is neutral like it usually is, but there is a hint of distress in her eyes as she stares upward.

"'Lost?' N-Now, whaddya mean?" Dedede stutters out, his plumage puffing out. "We beat the bad guy, so problem solved! That's what Kirby always does. Ain't that right, squirt?" He looks down to his side, where Kirby is pressed tightly against, covering their eyes. Dedede frowns. "...Kirby?"

Everyone's increasingly panicked ramblings rise to a crescendo as the darkness continues to consume the sky. Everything in Peach's mind is screaming at her that this is the end, as she is sure everyone else feels deep within them. _I suppose so_, she thinks back to yet again, knowing that only a miracle can help them now––a desperate wish, so to speak.

She takes one last shaky deep breath before she falls onto her knees, scrunches her eyes shut and clasps her hands together in a prayer. Everything else becomes distant mumbles as she feels the beat of her heart, much too rapid.

"I wish..." she breathes out as screams begin to ring out. "I wish..." she repeats, her heartbeats like a roar in her ears. She feels something akin to a web coming from her heart, its lines tugging and pulling and begging the others to chime in.

One by one, she hears their frantic thoughts in her mind, slowly concentrating into a single thought.

"I want to save my pals."

"I want Diddy to be safe."

"I want this world to be safe."

"I want to be able to see my kids grow up."

"I want to see my bro again."

"I want everyone to be safe."

She lets out another breath. The piece of star in her chest warms and thrums steadily, feeling the powers of Wario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Bowser, Luigi, Mario––all the other six star children. Now, all that remains is for her to complete this desperate last wish.

With all the concentration she can muster in the heart of this frightful storm, she gathers all of her wish magic and breathes it into her next whispers: "I wish we could save everyone."

The last thing she sees is utter darkness.

* * *

"We have a decision to make."

The voice comes in sharp, much like the breath Peach takes in as she opens her eyes wide. She is standing in a crowd, Mario by her side (who gives her a glance, but doesn't do much else).

She looks over to the one who spoke. Chrom has a serious expression on his face, one that he so easily slips into despite his normally happy attitude. Robin stands by his side, similarly somber.

"We either attack Galeem first," Chrom continues, "or Dharkon."

"Dharkon," Master Hand chimes in, clenching and unclenching himself. "I don't much care for him."

"Galeem's not any better, though..." Crazy points out, wagging his index finger.

"Dharkon is less predictable," Rosalina speaks up, grabbing Peach's attention immediately. Rosalina is now like she always is: calm and collected rather than terrified. "There is no telling what he will do if we focus on Galeem rather than him."

Peach zones out of the discussion, placing her fingertips on her brooch. Time has reset itself. This is the exact conversation they had before they decided to attack Dharkon first––no, Galeem. Or had they...?

"Galeem is more brainy," Snake says, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and puffing out a smoke (normally, she would scold him for smoking, but now is not the time). "If we give Galeem enough time, he'll have probably cooked up some plan to kill us all in one go."

She clutches her brooch as faint memories start to stir, of sterile light and oppressive darkness. Fighting Dharkon didn't work, fighting Galeem didn't work...

"Dharkon'll just destroy everything if we give him the chance!" Nana wags her hammer in the air as Popo agrees with a "Yeah!"

Ganondorf scoffs. "And Galeem wouldn't?"

They both would. Once the other is gone, the remaining one is able to wreck absolute havoc. They cannot give either of them the chance––not again.

There is only one solution.

"We fight both," Peach says, getting everyone's attention. "We get them both to the same place and fight them at the same time. Neither of them has an advantage that way."

Robin's face creases. "I understand your reasoning, but we would probably be overwhelmed if we did that."

"Divide and conquer," Chrom quips.

Peach shakes her head, a sense of doom rising in her stomach. She has to make them see reason. "That won't work. We _have_ to fight both. If we don't, the other will destroy everything."

"I don't see how we could take them both on..." Mii Brawler admits, their monotone voice quieter than usual.

Peach clenches her hands into fists. "We have to try!"

Fingertips graze her arm. "Peachy?" Mario asks, his voice full of hesitant confusion.

She turns to him, her eyes intense. "Don't you remember, Mario? How we all––" Her voice catches in her throat. She doesn't want to say the word.

"Peach."

Her attention goes to Rosalina, whose expression is unreadable. "What happened?"

Peach takes a breath. What is the use of hiding it? "We've tried fighting Galeem, and we've tried fighting Dharkon. It..." her voice cracks, but she continues on, "it didn't end well, either time."

Rosalina purses her lips as the crowd stirs with murmurs and exclamations.

Master Hand eventually raises himself in a stop motion, making everyone eventually quiet down. He curls up his fingers tensely. "Princess Peach," he begins, "surely you aren't suggesting that we... failed twice? And traveled back in time _twice_?"

She opens her mouth to speak.

"She is."

Peach closes her mouth and looks past the hand to the one who spoke. A particularly somber look is in Rosalina's eyes as she stares at Peach. "I can recognize it now. The star within your heart..." She pauses, her gaze flicking between Mario and Peach. "All of your hearts... they have stirred, have they not?"

Peach nods. "Yes. I... wished that we could save everyone."

"You 'wished?'" Snake asked, a disbelieving frown on his face.

"Unlike your universe, a wish in ours is tangible and powerful," Rosalina explains, her eyes still on Peach. "I thought the Star Rod and Road were necessary to grant a wish, but apparently not for the star children."

Master Hand uncurls his fingers. "So we have been granted a miracle. I intend not to waste it, then." He floats closer to Peach, one finger lifted inquisitively up. "You say we must fight them both at the same time?"

She nods. "It seems to be the only way."

He makes himself into a fist. "Alright. I say we send everyone to the middle of the battlefield and make them come to us."

"Won't that be dangerous, sending everyone? What if they trap us?" Mii Gunner points out.

"Our choices are apparently very limited," Master Hand says. "We either go all in or die."

His bluntness strikes a chord within the group, everyone shouting and getting riled up, for better or worse.

"Everyone!" Master Hand hollers out over the whole group, forcing them to shut up. "I understand that the situation is terrifying, but we musn't lose ourselves. We _have_ to keep going. I refuse to accept defeat when we have been given another chance to save everything."

Murmurs of uneasiness fill the air.

"You did not come here through coincidence," he continues on. "I put you on the roster because you displayed the makings of a powerful individual. Many of you have already saved countless lives, if not whole worlds." He raises his index finger. "Remember Tabuu? Remember how you worked together to defeat him? Remember how it was through all of your collective efforts that we're standing here now?"

A few agreements are shouted out, and the murmurs become more excited.

"We can't give up now!" he stresses. "Not after everything we've done! We have to keep _going_!"

The whole group is shouting now, their volume rivaling Master Hand's.

Before Master Hand can finish his speech, Crazy Hand interrupts with a hearty, _"Let's get 'em!"_

There is a boom of shouts and yells, nearly everyone ready to defeat the two menaces for good. Peach fills her heart swell with hope at the show of confidence, and a grin finally finds its way back on her face.

A single, thundering clap brings everyone's attention back to the hands, who are now palm-to-palm. "Let's do this," their voices overlapping in an echoing tone before they both plunge into the earth.

* * *

Peach breathes heavily as her knees hit the ground, barely managing to catch herself with her hands before falling over completely. It feels like all of her muscles are burning from the long, drawn-out fight, but they did it. She cants her head up and raises a hand to block the sunlight. All the fake hands disintegrate to nothing as both Galeem and Dharkon fall into the ocean below as useless ash.

She wipes her arm against her forehead as she slowly stands up, marveling at the sight––only for her mouth to drop as light shines from their fallen forms. She only has enough time to throw her arms above her head as an explosion sounds off. The ripple of pressure forces her back down, scraping her elbows against the rough ground.

She stays still on the ground for a moment longer until she untangles her arms and looks upward. Her eyes widen at the sight. Thousands, if not millions, of shining spirits snake upward into the air, lighting up the twilight sky through the brilliant rainbow.

They really did it. All of those spirits––_everyone_ is safe now. Everyone. That is all she wished for.

Footsteps come up from behind her, the rest of the fighters walking up to the cliffside to see their friends, foes, acquiantances, anyone they had ever known float higher and higher up. In her periphery, she even sees Master Hand and Crazy Hand raise their fingertips to the sight, entranced by it.

A series of clacks goes up to her side and stops. She turns to her right to see a hand presented to her. "Do you need help?" Rosalina asks.

Peach murmurs her thanks as she grasps her hand, leveraging herself up. The two remain silent as they stare up, watching the last of the spirits leave the atmosphere.

"You were right," Peach breaks the silence. She feels Rosalina's gaze fall on her. "That time did come––when we would need the power of the star children."

Rosalina hums. "That is how the universe works––what can happen eventually will."

Peach lets out a nervous laugh, glancing down at her sooty, ripped dress. "I'm not sure I can handle whatever else the universe has for me."

She can hear the smile in Rosalina's words. "I am sure you can."

* * *

**A/N: I have no idea how long I've been working on this so here, just take it.**

**The star children lore is from Yoshi's Island DS, and as far as I'm aware has not been (explicitly) used or mentioned since, even though it seems pretty significant.**

**This fic was partly inspired by Undertale, with how you can get one ending and go for another one, but there are hints of the other endings you got––like a character mentioning that it looks like you've seen a ghost or something along those lines if you killed them in a previous playthrough. Mostly, however, I wrote this fic in order to put my headcanons concerning the star children down into story form while also exploring the endings of SSBU. Hope you enjoyed!**


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